


Empty Graves

by Artikaa



Category: Tales of Berseria
Genre: Angst, F/F, Grief/Mourning, Post-Canon, Spoilers, magivel - Freeform, talesfemslashweek2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-03 17:12:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11536728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artikaa/pseuds/Artikaa
Summary: Magilou mourns the end of their adventure, their relationship, and Velvet's lost life.A post-canon angst fic for #talesfemslashweek2017Prompt: Flowers





	Empty Graves

It had been a year.

Magilou hadn’t been walking with any particular destination in mind, but she wasn’t surprised when she found herself in the familiar woods outside Aball. They’d been here together, all of them—they’d traveled a lot of different places together. And yet, on the one year anniversary of their journey’s end, she ended up here, at Velvet’s home.

The witch sighed, leaning against a tree. She knew all too well which way to go from here, and what she _really_ wanted to do that day. She closed her eyes, her mind trailing off into things that could have been. A high pitched, on-the-verge-of-being-annoying-if-she-wasn’t-already-so-used-to-it voice interrupted her fantasy.

“Miss Magilou, aren’t we close to Aball?”

Bienfu had made his way between her feet and she glared down at him. “Oh, have we?” she asked, her tone nonchalant. “I hadn’t even noticed.”

“Should we go see the village?” He asked excitedly, his eyes round beneath the large hat he wore. “How long has it been since we came this way?”

Magilou pushed off the tree, spinning on her heel to face the way to Aball. “Well, if you insist, I suppose we could make a quick pit stop. But remember, time is money, and this is coming out of your check.” She walked away quickly, her arms stretched above her head. Bienfu let out one of his signature _Bien_ s of despair and she smirked.

“But I don’t even get paid!”

“Well, that’s because you keep costing me. Now come on, are we going or what?”

It didn’t take them long to reach the town. Now that the demons were mostly quelled by their shiny new empyrean, she half expected the town to be reclaimed by the villagers of Taliesin, but apparently that wasn’t the case. Magilou expected that some things would never change; but, then again, maybe they would come tomorrow and begin cleaning out the abandoned buildings. You never know.

As her eyes wandered from the overtaken homes to the unkept grass growing over what used to be a road, the delicate pink of a flower caught her attention. She scoffed at the small bud, its petals barely emerging but fluttering out where they could manage. A princessia.

She walked over to it, pulling it up by the stem and severing its connection to the earth. “How fitting,” she mumbled, twirling the flowers between her thin fingers. She glanced around for Bienfu, finding him leaning too far over the edge of an old pot, nearly overflowing with collected water. She rolled her eyes, turning towards Velvet’s childhood home. While he was preoccupied, she could at least get some peace and quiet.

Magilou walked slowly, her mind wandering as she neared the home of someone who may as well have been dead. She sighed again—she had been doing that quite a lot lately. The front steps of the quaint home invited her to sit, so she did. She studied the area around her. It had all started here. Velvet grew up _happy_ here, and she could have remained that way her entire life. She would have been content to.

She had admitted that much herself, though Magilou hadn’t pressed her. She never pried—too far, at least, not when she thought it would actually mean something. Velvet had opened up to her. She’d done that a lot there, towards the end. Magilou had cursed herself then for hoping for something more, but now, in hindsight, sitting alone on the front steps of an abandoned home, she regretted it.

She should have just let herself be happy while she had the chance, but none of them knew it would end up this way. She had an inkling they would all die, but not this.

They weren’t without their happy moments, but there should have been more.

A distant _BIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENN_ followed by a splash of water let Magilou know her time was up. She stood, still spinning the princessia in her hand, and stepped to the graves by the house. She knelt before them, dusting the headstones off to read the names of Velvet’s family members.

If she had died properly, if she had left a body behind at all, she would want to be here. Wherever she was, Magilou thought, surely her heart was here at least.

She laid the delicate flower between the graves, hoping that some measure of her feelings would seep into the earth and find their way to Velvet. She knew it was stupid, and she scolded herself in her head, but she ignored it. She would let herself have just this _one thing_.


End file.
